Tomorrow's Business Today
It's (not) the end of the world as we know it
Inflation in Turkey just hit 80%, The Guardian and others report.
The central bank isn’t going to just ignore that, oh no. It’s working on a plan to see it slashed to a mere 40%.
This makes our woes seem relatively insignificant.
Over in Germany – solid, sensible, we-never-lose Germany – chancellor Olaf Scholz warns that the country faces a “social tinderbox” over inflation and heating bills.
Tinderbox definition: A potentially explosive situation.
My point is that if you only read a certain sort of newspaper or hang-out with a certain type of person, you could think that the UK is uniquely cursed.
Nothing works. Everybody in charge is an idiot. We are all going to starve.
It just isn’t so.
The economic narrative at the moment is gloomy. Near everything that lands in my inbox tells me that things are rubbish and getting worse.
Most of this stuff is intended for, and in normal times restricted to, pointy heads in the City and the business pages.
Just now, it might make the front page, where it seldom belongs.
This is not to ignore that a great many people are facing hardship. But a great many people always do.
So hold off on the gloom – that bit I’ve got.
Tell us why it isn’t THAT bad. Why the UK might recover faster than anyone else.
Why the historical precedents that always get used (it’s the 1970s again!) just don’t apply here.
Cheer us up, in other words.
Press release of the day
What rate of wage growth is acceptable for central banks, asks this from Capital Economics.
The banks want to avoid a repeat of the 1970s wage-price spiral. They might accept pay rises of between 3% and 4%, argues Capital.
